The demand by users and the purchasing public that portable electronic devices, particularly mobile telephone devices, become increasing smaller and lighter while at the same time providing an increasing number of different functions in addition to the basic telephone communication functions places a premium on available surface space for the user interfaces necessary to carryout the intended functions and operations of the associated features. In addition, there is also a demand for larger size screens for displaying images, for example, taken with a camera built into the mobile telephone or for displaying received images such as streaming video. This demand has required the manufacturer of such devices to design and develop innovative device enclosures with form factors capable of reconfiguration from one operative position to another to provide the necessary user interface to operate the device and create a good user experience.
It is known in the mobile telephone device enclosure art to provide a “flip” form factor in which the cover of the device is hinged to a main body element which carries a user interface relative to usage and the cover is “flipped” to open the device to make the user interface assessable to the user. The inside surface of the cover carries a screen to display alphanumeric characters, graphics, images and other representations common to such mobile telephone devices and which are commonly known in the trade and by the consuming public. The “flip” enclosure form factor configuration expands the user interface surface and provides a larger screen display area while maintaining a relatively smaller size device enclosure compared to other mobile telephone device form factors in which the user interface and the screen share a common surface area.
It is also known in the mobile telephone device enclosure art to provide a “slide” form factor in which the cover overlays a main body element and is arranged for linear sliding engagement with the main body element. The cover often carries a screen and may include keys to carry out various intended functions of the device when the cover is in its overlying operative position. The device is configured to a second operative position when the user slides the cover to expose a surface of the main body element which carries a user interface which may be an arrangement of keys for example, in a desired pattern to carry out the intended function such as inputting a telephone number or entry of alphanumeric characters to the device in a well known manner. The user slides the cover in the reverse direction to return the device is returned to its closed operative position. Although “slide” phone device form factors provide ease of usage in changing from one operative position to another operative position, the increase in effective user interface area is not as effective as “flip” phones because of the limited movement of the cover with respect to the main body element.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a portable electronic device form factor that overcomes the limitations and disadvantages of the known portable electronic device form factors in which one body element is arranged to move relative to another body element to increase the effective user interface area.
It is an object of the present therefore to provide a multi-position device form factor in which one body element is arranged to slide relative to another body element to configure the body elements in a number of different predetermined fixed orientations each of which define a different non-over lapping operative position.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a multi-position device form factor in which the body elements are arranged to move in a common plane relative to one another in X, Y, and XY coordinate directions.